As Oregon Health & Science University moves to arm its police, focus is not pulling the trigger

For years Greg Moawad helped review police officers' use of force for the Multnomah County District Attorney's office, including shootings.

Now, as director of the Oregon Health & Science University police, the former prosecutor is leading the push to arm his force with guns – while doing everything possible so officers don't use their new weapons.

On Thursday, the OHSU board is expected to approve the recommendation for armed police.

The major focus of the preparation led by Moawad, however, is not on shooting, but on communication, de-escalation of potentially violent situations, and "strategic disengagement" – an approach Moawad calls the first of its kind, encouraging officers to back down if a situation threatens to lead to more harm than it prevents.

"The quasi-militaristic approach that's more traditional in law enforcement doesn't always mesh well in any academic setting," he said, "let alone an academic medical center."

Following the 2007 killing of dozens at Virginia Tech, an OHSU task force had recommended an armed police force. But the university decided to set up an unarmed police force instead.

Moawad was brought on to OHSU to do just that, transforming the existing security force into a team of sworn police officers with arrest powers, who are certified after undergoing police training.

To supplement the OHSU police with an armed presence, the university looked to contract with local police agencies such as the Portland Police Bureau, but eventually decided the idea was not a good fit in terms of the sensitive patient mix, including the mentally ill, that OHSU frequently treats. Not only that, but response times to the Southwest hills of the OHSU main campus were poor. In one incident where a man threatened to shoot medical personnel, Portland police took 14 minutes to respond.

OHSU President Joe Robertson decided it was time to proceed with an armed force, and asked Moawad to work out the details, leading to two work groups to discuss training and policies.

The result: A 130-hour supplemental training course assembled by looking at police around the country. How much of Moawad's focus was dictated by his past reviews of local police situations gone wrong? "Frankly, I think a lot of it," he said.

The issue is "How do we want our officers approaching situations and making decisions?" He said. "That's something that as a deputy district attorney you very rarely get to weigh in on, but as the head of a police agency you have the absolute right and expectation that you control those things. "

But while his goal is to improve on training offered by the Portland police bureau and other agencies, he says it's not fair to compare the forces, as municipal law enforcement has different funding and different demands.

"Our policy is designed to fit in a hospital environment," he said. "Firearms are going to be a last resort as something to deal with an active shooter as opposed to the day to day activities that it's more commonly used for in traditional law enforcement."

If approved the force will finish training and be armed by mid-September.

The cost will be $600,000 annually, mainly in training time. His department's current budget is about $4.4 million